W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

[strangerpeople]

W͜͏̶Ę͏E͝͠K͝͞ ̧1̵͟

[The national council just announced the blight to the country.

There was no sugarcoating it anymore. This was a critical time. Saving all of the vines is paramount, but what does one do when the blight hits? It keeps encroaching on the grapes, day by day. Entire clusters, entire bunches, dead and rotting, while allowing the blight to spread, and the leading botanists and viticulturists cannot identify the origin or the cause. They can't even successfully isolate the culprit in their labs; it seems to disappear like air no matter the precautions taken.

It is a catastrophe that seems to be beyond science, and it will result in the complete collapse of the entire country's wine industry. Already, embargoes on this year's crop have forced other grape-growers to close shop for the year after they'd sold their previous stock; it is all too possible that no grapes might ever be grown here again if a cure cannot be found. The tourists have stopped coming. The towns have grown silent.

You, meanwhile, are devastated. With the way your business is going, it will be on the brink of bankruptcy within the year. You will soon have no choice but to close shop and let every grapevine die, let the land go fallow. There must be a cure for this, there must be. Yet everything that can go wrong is.

Then, as you watch the news, it happens. Breaking news. The blight has been found in another country.

It is a pandemic-and it is only getting worse.


-

Well. This is...what else can can anyone say? You all know the deal. You all know what situation you're in. All that is left is to figure out what you can do about it. If there's anything that can be done.

You still feel that compulsion to distrust. To know you cannot win. To know that only the hosts have your best interests in mind. It would be easy to just do all that. But would it be the right thing to do? You can't be completely sure. Indeed, nothing is certain here, except for that damned ticking sound. If only you could stop it.

But you can't stop it. It is inevitable.


There are 15 strangers in this place.]

Comments

[unwittingking]

They gave one of those things to you?!?

[Yeah, hi, he upsetti]

[touchsensors]

Oyo?

[She confuzzle! It's fine.]

[unwittingking]

[He...tries to control the panic setting in. This is a kid, he shouldn’t yell, he shouldn’t get loud, he needs to calm down.]

Those...things aren’t good. They make deals with people, and it benefits them in the short term, but it’ll eventually turn you into giant monster that kills people.

[If Jonathan is there, he’s glancing at him for a second before continuing.]

They’re not to be trusted.

[touchsensors]

[Excuse you she is an adult. Technically, according to her society.]

It doesn't even talk-lun. How would I make a deal with it-lun?

[unwittingking]

[That’s her society, in his 14-year-olds that are barely above 5’ are considered kids.]

Don’t. Fall. For. It.

It looks nice and cuddly, but it was because of that thing that the universe-dimension-wherever I was before nearly got destroyed, and the only reason it didn’t was because of weird time science thing.

[Or magic. But he’s hoping it’s not that, considering how high-tech that universe was.]

[touchsensors]

[...thought all two feet of him.]

So it can destroy universes... but instead it tries to trick people-lun?

[unwittingking]

[...touché...]

It’s...complicated. The point is, that thing isn’t to be trusted. Especially if it does start talking!

[touchsensors]

I'll be careful if it starts talking, then.

[why must the cute animals hate each other]

[unwittingking]

[there can be only one]

Thank you.

[byanyother_name]

It can talk. It just isn't talking to you, likely so it can pass itself off as a harmless pet until the right moment. Kyuubey can be...very patient.

[touchsensors]

Maybe it wants to seem like a harmless pet because it knows you all hate it-lun.

[byanyother_name]

Those of us who hate it also know it on sight. Seeming like a harmless pet only aids it with those who know no better.

[Kurama looks at her, his expression serious but not unkind.]

Kyuubey has tricked countless young girls, innocent children, into becoming warriors that inevitably break and turn into murderous nonhuman beings.

[touchsensors]

[Young girls becoming warriors, huh...]

...what are these warriors like-lun?

[byanyother_name]

....their souls are separated from their bodies and become gems. They gain magic and quicker healing and the more they use it, the more they are corrupted. Until they lose themselves.

They are set unknowing to fight those that were lost before them, in a monstrous cycle.

[touchsensors]

...I think I'll be able to avoid that deal-lun. It sounds like a worse version of a Precure-lun.

[byanyother_name]

That's not how Kyuubey presents it. It offers to grant a wish in exchange for fighting and says nothing of the true price.

I'm afraid I've never heard of a Precure.

[touchsensors]

The Precure are legendary warriors who are out to restore the Star Princesses' power and save the universe-lun. There isn't anything about a wish though-lun.

[necroyalty]

...I'm sorry, did you just say that a pact with one of these beings transforms unwitting children into liches?

[touchsensors]

What's a lich-lun?

[byanyother_name]

I'm afraid I have to second Lala's question. I'm not familiar with the term.

[Kurama is exactly the sort of nerd that would love D&D but 90's-era Japan isn't a hotbed for it.]

[unwittingking]

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